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A Possible Direction for a Post-Unity LMC

Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB Proposals Board: Other Proposals: A Possible Direction for a Post-Unity LMC

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - 03:42 am: Edit

I’ve had an idea kicking around in my head for a while for what to do with the Lesser Magellanic Cloud post-Unity. I’ve read the appropriate fiction, and think that the plan works. I have no access to anything unpublished.

I don’t know to what extent that there is a Magellanic plan (though my impression from reading the BBS is that there isn’t really much concrete). I hope to humbly contribute a roadmap for fleshing out the Cloud’s future history. There’s a good chance that some or all what I’ve written here simply doesn’t work as it has contact points with the Sakharov, X2 technology, the Xorkaelian invasions, the Trade Wars, and other established points of fictional canon.

At best this will serve as an option to be put on the table for tying everything together. At worst, maybe I’ll amuse you.

Chapter One: The Canon of The Cloud
So, some background for those less familiar with the cloud:

Here’s what the cloud looks like before the Andromedans blow everything up.

The Magellanic Cloud has five fleshed out empires: The Baduvai Imperium (comparatively beneficent quadruped cow things), The Eneen Protectorates (militaristic radiation-resistant lemurs), The Maghadim Hives (decapod insectoid eusocial bug things that inhabit the LMC’s core, which is kind of like a beefed up WYN Cluster), The Uthiki Harmony (gas giant invertebrates whose civilisation was ended by the Andromedans, so they don’t really matter to us right now), and The Jumokian Resistance (tree-swinging monkey-like warm blooded lizards who lost their homeworld to the Eneen and act as this setting’s pirates).

The Magellanic Cloud have two empires for which nothing has been published: The Yorl Septs (inconsistently spelled Yorl on the map and Yrol in what little background they have, we only know that they are nebula residents that use cyborg ships), and The Chomak Community (an empire that I previously tried to flesh out here, and who have several points of contact with the timeline, but have nothing official published regarding their nature, technology, etc)

Between Y138 and Y185 the Andromedans completely conquer the cloud. Unlike what happens in Alpha and Omega, the Andromedan conquest is complete, and no polities exist. The surviving fleet elements of the Magellanic powers flee to the rim of the LMC and using technology that was originally Jindarian, they construct asteroid-based shipyards and fight a hopeless guerrilla war against the Andromedans until Operation Unity saves the day.

Post-Unity there is very little written. Captain’s Log 51 contains a history of the USS Sakharov written by Gary Carney, and it details a few things. Basically, even though Unity is over The Cloud is still crawling with Andromedans. There is a conference in Y203 at Sleern (a planet which appears with comic frequency in the fiction, despite being nobody’s homeworld), and this Sleern Conference produces little agreement. The Magellanic nations are at each other’s throats with competing territorial claims (Sleern and the “Neutral Worlds” – a sector on the map that has changed hands multiple times and has served as a neutral buffer region – were last ceded to the Maghadim as a concession in exchange for fighting the Andromedans, and the Maghadim argue that this concession is still valid and the neutral worlds are theirs) and demands that the Alpha Octant occupying forces prioritise each of the Magellanic nations' homeworlds for liberation from the Andromedans.

What comes out of the Y203 Sleern Conference is Operation Phoenix. Operation Phoenix’s scope isn’t detailed in the short little write up it gets, but we do get a few details. First, it is written as though the Magellanic powers are in the driver’s seat. The Baduvai liberate the their old core provinces and an important planet called H’Gar. The Eneen liberate Ena and the immediate area around it. The Maghadim turn their attention to the Neutral Worlds (I’m reading between the lines, but I take it that this happened for two reasons 1: to secure their contested claim to them by creating facts on the ground, and 2: because the liberation of their homeworlds, which is their highest goal, in the LMC’s core isn’t possible until the ring of Andromedan fortresses around the core are busted). The Alpha Octant’s role in Operation Phoenix isn’t given much detail, but we know that the Alpha Octant powers participated in Phoenix. One Alpha operation we know about is in Y204 the Sakharov and the Fermi (two GSX survey ships) each worked from the Neutral Worlds’ side of the core, and moved southward on opposite sides of the core to meet where the old border between the Baduvai and Eneen lay. Along the way they located and destroyed the ring of fortifications that the Andromedans had set up to prevent access into or out of the core. We aren’t given any details about what else Operation Phoenix accomplished, or hoped to accomplish, but we know that after the breaking of the fortresses the GSXs are sent on other missions that don’t directly have to do with liberating The Cloud from the Andromedans, and that there are still remnants of Andromedan forces in the Cloud.

The Sakharov does some other cool things after this that are beyond the scope of what I’m writing here, notably it departs the LMC in Y212 and discovers the Omega Octant, returning to tell of what is over there in Y218, and participating in Operation Irminsul, which created a transit link between the LMC and Omega. Cool beans.

Taking a look at the timeline there are two notable dates to take into account, and one notable date that isn’t included in that document. They are:

Quote:
Y205 Era of Second Generation X-ships and Trade Wars begins.

This is the biggest thing I’m going to be pinging off of.

Quote:
Y207 Klingon Emperor Kellish retires to Bakuria. Industrial Prince Korv becomes emperor and institutes free market concepts, which revitalize the empire (although not without pain and compromise).

Less important, but I’m incorporating this to an extent.

Quote:
Y210 Not in the timeline document, but this is the year given for the Xorkaelian Tyranny’s invasion.

We don’t really have any Xorkaelian info, and everything is subject to expansion and revision, but the CL51 article makes mention of it, and says that in Y210 that reports of the Xorkaelian Tyranny’s invasion reach the cloud. Reports reaching the cloud are not the same as ships reaching the cloud, so I’m going to make a bit of a leap here and say that the Xorks don’t invade the cloud, or if they do, it’s a sideshow to the very big serious invasion of the Alpha Octant.

Chapter Two: Peace Conferences and Occupation
That’s all the relevant background. Eveything before this point is established canon. Everything after this point is my proposal.

Operation Phoenix is a joint operation with the Magellanics and the Galactics. Unity ended the existential threat to the galaxy, and Phoenix rooted out the majority of Andromedan forces in the 2 year span of Y203 to Y205. Nobody knows how many Andromedans remain in the LMC, but whatever does remain goes into hiding because it is not capable of challenging the combined strength of the Alphas and the Magellanics. Maybe 20% of the Andromedan forces remain, but they are diminished further every year.

Y205 is the start of the X2 era. What does an X2 ship look like? What does it do? How does it play? Not relevant to our discussion here. We’ll all find out when ADB publishes Module X2 in the (hopefully) near future.

What the X2 era means for the cloud is primarily two things:

First, X2 means X2 resources are needed. X1 ships needed Germanium and Gadolinium (and probably some other materials) that non-X ships didn’t need. I’m proposing that whatever rare materials are required for X2, they are rare or expensive to extract in the Milky Way, yet abundant and relatively cheap to extract in the LMC. Maybe X2 rare materials are mainly found in the core regions of galaxies? In that case Galactics would need to brave the intense radiation of the Galactic coreward regions to mine the stuff, whereas in the LMC the galactic core is notably more hospitable. Either way, the LMC has what the Alpha Octant needs.

Second, at the time of the Andromedan invasion the Magellanics hadn’t reached X1 tech. This means that Galactics are a good deal more powerful than Magellanics. One X2 ship should be able to defeat a great number of non-X ships. The relative force investment that Alpha needs to make in order to have tremendous influence in The Cloud is minimal. They are two generations ahead of the LMC. A few X2 ships, and an empire can decide borders. Most of the occupying forces that are left in The Cloud are X1 technology, and even they leave non-X ships hopelessly outclassed, and so adding even a single X2 cruiser to an X1 force makes that force unapproachable.

Y205 is when the trade wars begin. Currently there isn’t a canonical meaning of ‘trade wars’ in the fiction. I’m proposing what the trade wars will look like.

The Magellanic powers are weak. Unlike Alpha or even Omega, they were flattened by the Andros. Their worlds were occupied and their orbital infrastructure was destroyed. Many references are made to how devastating this was to the Cloud empires, but with few specifics. The Uthiki were canonically wiped out (to quote C5: “After Operation Unity, two isolated colonies of Uthiki were discovered. The colonies had lost most of their technological base, and expressed no interest in regaining it.”), and the Eneen subjects “have been virtually exterminated by the Andromedans.” As for the Baduvai, the Eneen and the Maghadim (who were reduced to one queen remaining) this is what C5 says: “all three of the Magellanic races have been reduced to fragments of their former selves.”

I say something like a 50% reduction in population is a reasonable minimum for what the Andromedans did to them. Maybe as high as 80%. The Magellanic powers are not capable of defending themselves, and are at the mercy of any two bit Alpha colonial power that wants to take the cloud. This should be apparent to all parties involved. Given the extreme distances between The Cloud and the Alpha Octant this won’t be a cheap or easy task, and that distance is the greatest self-defence asset the LMC has, but the Alphas are already in The Cloud rendering the distance moot.

If one Alpha power invests in colonising the cloud, all of their rivals will need to do so as well to keep from falling behind. Remember, there’s X2 raw materials there. There is no way not to play this game, if there aren’t rules about who can do what in the cloud it will be a colonial scramble. Nobody wants this, and so there must be a diplomatic solution (possible considering the tremendous good will post-Unity).

Y203 saw the Sleern Conference. In Y205 the second great Magellanic conference is held, the Uth conference, and it is held in orbit around the former Uthiki homeworld. The Uth Conference decides the fate of the Cloud. In attendance are all of the Alpha powers, and all of the Magellanic powers, with the exception of the WYN (they aren’t really a great power, plus the Kzinti would oppose their entry into the conference), the Orions (for obvious reasons), and the Vudar (the Klingons don’t want to encourage any recognition of their independence by their rivals, and frankly I think the Hydrans who also lost territory to the Vudar would support a Klingon veto).

Going into the Uth Conference, this is what the goals of the different parties are:

The Fed
The Federation has the goal of preserving the peace and supporting the recovery of the LMC. They also want to prevent the colonisation of the cloud by the other powers, and have no interest in colonialism themselves. They want a Marshall Plan for the Magellanics, and they don’t want any more militarization of The Cloud than is necessary to fight the Andromedans (who are a nuisance at this point). They want free trade between the cloud and Alpha, and are happy to buy their X2 resources from friendly, aligned nations in the cloud, or even better, to license the extraction rights.

Klingons
The Klingons are broke, and they care primarily about accessing the resources in the cloud. They aren’t looking to make partners, and they don’t give a hoot about self-determination. They don’t have the economy to support distant military adventures, but they also want permanent access to the cloud’s natural resources. They are colonial in mindset, but are willing to pretend that they aren’t to negotiate. If anyone will believe them, that is.

Romulans
The Romulans not only suffered the same hellish invasion by the Andromedans as everyone else, but they also went through a civil war, and before that lost Remus to the USS Macarthur crashing into it and rendering it “almost uninhabitable.” The Romulans are in no position to waste resources defending colonies in the cloud, and they need cheap access to the X2 resources in the cloud. Their goals are to block the other powers from acquiring too much, or from militarising the cloud, and to align with some Magellanic power that will allow them exclusive trading or mining rights.

Kzinti
Not only was their territory the front line of the General War, they fought a civil war against the WYNs, and then went through the same Andromedan brutality as everyone else. They’re in a weaker position than they otherwise would be and need access to X2 resources on the cheap. They have the benefit of being closer aligned with the Federation than other autocratic powers, and plan to leverage that relationship to guarantee trading or mining rights for themselves. Their primary interests are securing access to these resources and preventing the militarization of the cloud.

Gorn
The Gorn are in pretty good shape compared with most of the other powers. They are politically aligned with the Federation to a high degree, and are otherwise looking to get access to X2 resources. They have money and industrial capacity to spend on the project.

Tholians
The Tholians are isolationists. Their goal is to block their neighbours from getting more powerful. They have few goals of their own.

Hydrans
They were crushed during the General War to a degree few other powers were, and they lost a large chunk of their territory to the Vudar not that long afterwards. They don’t have the economy to support colonial ventures, and want access to the same resources as everybody else. They’re going to be arguing for the same things the Federation, Romulans, and Kzinti are arguing for: access to the cloud’s resources, and the prevention of cloud militarization.

Lyrans
The Lyran state is a balancing act between the different fiefdoms, making sure that none are too much stronger than the others, and that no power base exists that can challenge the Emperor. In this regard, the Lyran Emperor’s interests are to gain access to the territory and resources needed to remain in power, but to avoid enriching his subject aristocrats. The Lyrans have colonial interests, but will seek to rule indirectly through some sort of ally or puppet.

ISC
The ISC were greatly diminished in military strength by the Andromedan War, and they have terrible relations with all of the other Alpha powers (having declared war and their own superiority to everyone). They are also a very ideological state with immaterial interests that go beyond geopolitics, and compete with their geopolitical interests. The ISC will seek to have a free hand and little oversight where it operates, while also fighting against anything that could lead to another war between the powers. It will be both colonial and anti-colonial in its stance, and will seek to create alignment in the cloud rather than to acquire subjects or territory.

Baduvai
The Baduvai are an imperialist colonial power fighting for their homeland. They have a more beneficent rule, and a lighter touch than the Eneen, but are going to want territory and protection. They will seek an Alpha great power patron, and will seek to have the strongest geopolitical position that they can have.

Eneen
The Eneen are an imperialist colonial power fighting for their homeland. They are more militaristic in their orientation than the Baduvai, and rule with a harsher touch. They will also seek out an Alpha great power patron, and they are going to seek the strongest patron that will help them press their irredentist claims.

Maghadim
The Maghadim are in a precarious position, they have one queen left, and as of Y203 their homeland was still inaccessible due to the Andromedans occupying the core. They need an Alpha great power patron that will provide security against their neighbours, and (given their ranting about Sleern and the Neutral Worlds at the Sleern Conference) seem to be delusionally irredentist.

Jumokians
There will never be another chance to reclaim their homeland (bombed “back to the stone age” in Y113 by the Eneen). Many have become accustomed to the life of nomadic pirate raiders, and don’t necessarily want to resettle Jumok, but given the choice between Jumok being in the hands of Jumokians, or Jumok being in the hands of the Eneen, no Jumokian would choose the latter. They need a great power patron, and they need the Alpha powers to support their right to self determination. All other goals are secondary.

Chomak
This is tricky. I like the fiction I wrote for the Chomak, but it isn’t canon currently. I tried to write the Chomak background to reflect what little we already know about them, so regardless of whether or not my fiction or somebody else’s gets chosen, I think it’s safe to say that based on the bits of the Chomak we get from the canonical fiction, they’d probably want to be left alone in their cluster to rebuild. They’re isolated from the other powers and probably wouldn’t seek a patron, and would resist anybody staking a claim of any kind to them or their territory.

Yrol
We know very little about the Yorl. The fiction says the Yrol are nebula-dwellers, so let’s leave the Yorl alone in their nebula. They’re a minor power anyway.

So, given what everybody wants, and what everybody needs, and what everybody will and won’t accept I think this is how the conference shapes up. This is the big peace conference after the big war. Nations are willing to try out big ideas, the shape of a (satellite) galaxy is forged here.

The Klingons, Gorn, Lyrans, and the ISC argue for a more hands-on program compatible with their colonial desires.

The Federation, Romulans, Kzinti, Tholians, Hydrans, and the ISC (again), argue against colonial enterprises, and in favour of reconstructing The Cloud in a way where the Magellanics are in control of their own destiny.

All Galactics agree on one thing, however: peace must reign in The Cloud. Be it for good business, or humanitarianism, or pacifism, or stability in and of itself, everyone wants peace in the cloud.

The Magellanics do not want peace. They want to resume their struggle for domination of The Cloud once they’re strong enough to do so, and each thinks that they’ll be the one to be the hegemon of the LMC. It will be their goal to ensnare and entangle Galactic interests with their own, while retaining the most autonomy, and seeking the patronage of powerful outsiders. The Triple Pact members search for patrons, the Chomak seek to be left on their own.

I think the Uth Conference will produce the following results:

No Galactic power will make any territorial claims upon the LMC.
The Magellanic powers will retain their territorial integrity with the borders agreed upon in the Y152 treaty that established the Triple Pact. The only alteration is an independent Jumok (one hex of territory in F&E terms).
A starbase will be established in the LMC that will be funded and operated by all of the Alpha powers collectively. The area immediately surrounding the international starbase will be considered international.
The Magellanic powers agree to the stationing of permanent occupation forces that will support further Magellanic attempts to fight the Andromedans, and who will act as peacekeeping forces.
The Magellanic powers renounce their right to wage war on each other and agree to arbitrate their disputes through the Magellanic Court of Justice (located in that starbase).

(Don’t worry, nobody keeps their promises).

The cloud is divided into occupation zones. Each Galactic power with an occupation zone is responsible for:

Protecting the sovereignty of the Magellanic territory under occupation.
Hunting Andromedans in the territory under occupation.
Supporting the recovery of the peoples whose territory is under occupation with investments in economic infrastructure and self-defence.

(Don’t worry, nobody keeps their promises).

In exchange the occupying powers have full rights to extract raw materials within their occupied territories and all Galactics have full military access anywhere in the Cloud.

These rights, responsibilities, and the occupation generally expire in Y225, twenty years after the signing of the Treaty of Uth. After this the Triple Pact members and the Chomak may make whatever treaties they wish to make with whatever powers they wish to make, and regain full and exclusive control over their sovereign territory.

(Don’t worry, nobody keeps their promises).

I’ve done up a map of what the occupation of The LMC looks like in Y205. This isn’t the sort of occupation that you’d see of a defeated military power. This is more like sponsorships, economic zones, and protectorates. The Alphas provide security, the Magellanics allow the Alphas to extract rare materials that the Alphas want in exchange for this benevolent occupation.

The Alphas see their official reason for being there as peacekeeping and building up The Cloud so that it can defend itself and retain its stability, rather than leaving chaos in their backyard. The Magellanics see the Alpha occupation in more cynical terms, but understand the position that they’re in, their own weakness, and see the opportunities that junior partners see when powerful countries pledge themselves to defend a weaker nation.

The trade between The Cloud and the Alpha Octant begins immediately. Corporations establish massive resource extraction operations in record time. Everyone knows they have a 20 year time limit, or at least they think they know it. No actual warfare breaks out amongst the Alpha powers or the Magellanics, but The Cloud is the wild west. Orions and Jumokians operate in The Cloud, sure, but so do most of the major Alpha powers. In the “middle years” period there existed a constant low level of threat, even between supposed allies, as warships operating far from home were prone to going missing, and never having what happened to them known. The Cloud, the three transit connections between The Cloud and Alpha, and even Alpha (post Andromedans) have large expanses of space where anything can happen and nobody will know. Every power sought to sabotage every other power. They did this overtly, and they did this covertly. Nobody acknowledged what was going on, but they all knew it was zero sum. An ore freighter returning from the cloud filled with the rare materials for building X2 ships could be a national security threat if the ore ship made it to its destination. Everyone would rather kill it in transit. And the Andromedans are never fully vanquished either.

This is Y205. These are the trade wars. This constant low level of violence is what the trade wars are.

The Uth Conference was the high water mark of interstellar goodwill. Post-Uth, the various powers, even former allies, would do everything they could to sabotage this long and profoundly profitable series of trade routes.

Whatever the powers that signed the Treaty of Uth intended when they signed the treaty, things got dirty quickly, and facts on the ground changed rapidly. This is what life is like in each of the occupation zones:

The Fed
The Federation more or less do what they said they were going to do. They’re in the cloud to fight Andromedans, and they wish to make partners, allies, and trade partners. The Federation Occupation Zone overlaps only with Baduvai territorial claims, including their capital. The Feds assist the Baduvai in the construction of civilian and military fleet construction infrastructure, sell off old obsolete warships to the Baduvai to be converted into the Baduvai national guard fleet, and generally act as the most benevolent occupiers the Baduvai could ask for. The Baduvai Imperium becomes a close local ally of the Federation, and the Federation makes full use of its mining rights.

Klingons
The Klingon Occupation Zone is fully encompassed within Eneen territorial claims, and the Klingons find the Eneen to be a somewhat compatible partner when it comes to local allies. The Eneen pick up the Klingon practice of using subject species on their warships during this period of cultural exchange, and the Klingons sell off some of their old, obsolete warships to the Eneen Protectorates for use in their national defence. The Klingons are duplicitous allies though, and have designs on permanent occupation, and so begin building Klingon bases around the far south of Eneen territory under the guise of mining operations. In Y207 when the Klingons adopt free market principles, a charter is given to the newly formed Southern Magellanic Company, which begins creating permanent settlements in Eneen space. The Eneen, incensed, turn to the Magellanic Court of Justice, which sides with them against the Klingon construction of permanent settlements. Some of the more blatant colonies are abandoned, but the Klingons continue the project under greater secrecy.

Romulans
The Romulans are in no position to take advantage of their occupation zone, as domestic affairs draw most of their attention. The Romulans do as little as possible for the Eneen and Jumokians within their territory, treating it as a mining operation. The Jumokians take full advantage of Romulan indifference, and turn Romulan occupied Jumok into a pirate kingdom something like the heyday of Neutral Orion. The Romulans do make some token efforts against Andromedan holdouts, but even this is minimal. The Jumokians are easy allies to please, and the Romulans form a close relationship with them for very little investement. The Romulans would sell off much of their obsolete warship inventory in this period to the Jumokians. The venerable Warbird cruiser would fly a Jumokian flag because of deals made in this period (although cloaking devices would remain in Romulan hands).

Kzinti
The Kzinti are on their best behaviour within the Cloud. They don’t have the resources to commit to a long-distance project like LMC colonisation (although if they could afford it, they would expand), and so see the route to unfettered access to cheap X2 raw materials through a strong Baduvai state. They contribute little to the restoration of the Baduvai economy and infrastructure, but they do make an honest effort at Andromedan hunting. Since the Kzinti Occupation Zone overlaps slightly with Eneen territorial claims, they do nothing to stop clandestine Baduvai expansion. They only need one ally in the Cloud, and it might as well be the strongest one, forget treaties or justice.

Gorn
The Gorn Occupation Zone covers part of the northern reaches of the Baduvai realm, and also all of the former Uthiki territory. For whatever else the Gorn did in their occupation zone, they did take their rebuilding and Andromedan fighting responsibilities seriously. The Gorn commit to colonising the vacant Uthiki territory almost immediately. Although completely illegal, the Gorn state turns a blind eye to all objections, and for years maintains that it simply isn’t happening, and merely represents military investment in the fight against the Andromedans. The Federation conduct their own covert investigation in Y207, only to discover Gorn colonies in the occupied territory. The Federation go public with this information, and Gorn prestige, as well as their relationship with the Federation reaches a low point. The two neighbours will recover their friendship with time, but a serious rift opened up in Y207 that wouldn’t be healed until the Xorkaelians invade in Y210. The facts on the ground that the Gorn create in this period will have ramifications going forward within the Cloud for the rest of its history. The Gorn state behaves badly in this period, exerting undue control over the Baduvai recolonisation effort within the Gorn Occupation Zone. The Baduvai appeals to the Magellanic Court of Justice fail to produce results, as the Gorn manipulate the proceedings more expertly than the Klingons or the Romulans ever could. The Gorn sell off obsolete warships to the local Baduvai governors within their occupation zone, in the hopes of undermining Baduvai central authority, and creating local alliances with local grandees that will overlook what they have done in Uthiki space. They succeed.

Tholians
The Tholians argue vociferously during the Uth Conference for control of the specific territory that they end up occupying, and send a large force to reinforce it. Then, in Y206, they withdraw completely and abandon all of their responsibilities and privileges, declaring the Treaty of Uth to be illegal. The other powers will speculate for decades what the Tholians were up to in this period, but no non-Tholians will ever know the answer. The Tholians do not seem to have a shortage of X2 raw material in this period, despite controlling no territory in the Cloud.

Hydrans
The Hydrans have a fairly easy job of tending their occupation zone. The Hydran Occupation Zone encompasses the northernmost reaches of the Baduvai Imperium’s territory (and being hinterland territory it has little infrastructure to rebuild), and the rest is either galactic fringe or Neutral Worlds (which were purged of Andromedans early on, forming the new foothold of a Maghadim state). The Hydrans fulfil their responsibilities honourably, and the Maghadim seek close relations with the Hydran monarchy and guilds. The Hydrans support the Maghadim in the Magellanic Court of Justice with their claims against the Jumokians, Eneen, and the ISC, although with mixed results. The Hydrans sell off obsolete warships to the Maghadim who find their doctrines compatible with Hydran designs, and these form part of the home fleet of the Maghadim Hives.

Lyrans
The Lyrans, for what its worth, seemed to have been acting in good faith initially. They participated vigorously in the Andromedan hunt, and they provided an honest effort at sponsoring the Eneen rebuilding effort in the northern reaches of their territory. Everything changed in Y207 when the Klingons were sued by the Eneen in the Magellanic Court of Justice. Seeing that their Klingon allies were not going to support the restored Eneen state, they decided that maintaining good relations with the Klingon Empire was more important than anything involving the Eneen. The Lyrans began providing arms in the form of obsolete warships to local Eneen governors, and encouraged them to establish their own bases of power, and to make separate agreements with Lyrans against the wishes of the Eneen Protectorate’s central authority.

ISC
By far the most ambitious and most perfidious of all of the Alpha powers acting in The Cloud, the ISC had a hidden agenda from day one. ISC intelligence networks were able to grasp early on the nature of the various species that lived within the empires of the Triple Pact. The one that interested them the most were the Maghadim. Without queens, the Maghadim had all died off on their homeworlds during the Andromedan occupation, meaning that besides the Uthiki, the Maghadim had suffered the most destruction at the hands of the Andromedans of any Magellanic species. The Maghadim had risen and fallen countless times within the Magellanic Core prior to the Andromedan invasion, and were doomed if left to their nature to rise and fall again and again forever once their populations reached a critical level. The ISC committed themselves to a secret project that would change the Maghadim species into one that could function in a civilised and stable manner permanently. It would be their gift to a galaxy addicted to violence. By luck, the Maghadim had one queen left after their civilisation was extirpated from the core. The ISC would genetically alter the queens sent to repopulate the core. The ISC fought at the Uth Conference to have the entirety of the core as the ISC Occupation Zone for this purpose. The altered queens’ spawn would be more passive, peaceful, and averse to violence. The trait would be present in all queens birthed then on, and in all brain drones, leaving warriors and workers unaffected and productive. The ISC project would go undetected until well after it was too late to do anything about it, and once discovered the altered hives didn’t care all that much anyway, although the unaltered hives (in the Hydran Occupation Zone) and the rest of the Galactic powers would consider the ISC’s actions an atrocity. Other than this one heinous war crime, the ISC were comparable to the Federation when it came to carrying out a responsible occupation with a light touch. The ISC would provide the hives of the core with obsolete warships for their national guard and home defence fleet.

The Magellanics
The three Magellanic powers under occupation faced great difficulties depending on their patrons, but recovered swiftly, and more or less got what they wanted out of the deal. With security provided by the Galactics, and in many cases this also included the Galactics providing obsolete warships for immediate use (once converted over to local technology), the Magellanics had half a decade of peace, and massive foreign investment to rebuild. The temporary loss of sovereignty was universally accepted as worth the price of Galactic occupation.

Chapter Three: The Intifada

In Y210 the Xorkaelians invade. Whatever this looks like, the Alpha powers withdraw most of their military forces from The Cloud to fight at home. The military forces that remain are mainly Andromedan hunters and survey craft, but there is now substantial Alpha civilian infrastructure and activity in The Cloud, and shipments of X2 raw materials are vital to the war effort.

And around this point in time the Magellanics are getting pretty tired of being occupied anyway.

During the Xorkaelian invasion, however long that takes, the Magellanics begin to stand on their own two feet again. The Baduvai are the first to make a move, in Y212 the Baduvai Imperium asserts (without legal argument) that the Treaty of Uth was signed under coercion, and so is null and void, but that the Federation, Kzinti, and Gorn forces occupying their territory are welcome to stay so long as their only purpose is fighting Andromedans. The Baduvai renegotiate their X2 resource extraction agreements as well, charging royalties where royalties were previously not collected. The Federation respects the wishes of the Baduvai Imperium, and withdraw the few remaining warships (other than the RTN hunters) from Baduvai Imperium space, and begin paying royalties later that month. The Kzinti follow suit shortly after (afraid of both upsetting their Federation allies and losing access to the stream of X2 raw material coming from The Cloud). The Gorn pull their forces back into the former Uthiki territory they occupy (other than the RTN hunters) and begin paying royalties for their operations outside of Uthiki territory. The Baduvai are disturbed by the Uthiki exception, but don’t push the issue. All in all, they’re surprised that asking nicely worked.

When the sky didn’t fall in on the Baduvai, the other Magellanic powers carefully and tentatively began asserting their independence. In Y214 the Maghadim would demand the full withdrawal of the ISC from their territory. The ISC would comply with Maghadim wishes, but their altered hives would not. Coincident with the ISC withdrawal the hives of the Galactic Core region of the LMC would declare their independence from the Maghadim Hives, calling themselves The Harmonious Hives, and maintaining trading rights with the ISC. The ISC would engage RTN hunters elsewhere in The Cloud, but would avoid Maghadim Hive territory to avoid international incidents. Following this partition, the Maghadim Hives and the Harmonious Hives would fight a border war that saw some exchange of territory, and would be the first post-Unity war within the LMC. The ISC would blame the natural aggression of the Maghadim species, a trait that they have corrected. This brief war would see Maghadim fight Maghadim with the Maghadim Hives flying Hydran castoffs, and the Harmonious Hives flying ISC castoffs along with original post-Andromedan construction on both sides. The Hydrans would broker a peace deal, but took no part in the fighting.

The Baduvai decided to push their luck with the Gorn in Y217. The Gorn were asked to withdraw once again, and the Gorn negotiated. The deal they sought with the Baduvai Imperium was fairly modest considering Gorn investment. They wanted one “treaty port,” in other words a single outpost through which they could directly control customs and trade. The Baduvai Imperium seriously considered granting the Gorn request, but ultimately demanded full withdrawal instead. The Gorn agreed, but didn’t withdraw. Instead years of Gorn undermining of Baduvai Imperium authority ultimately paid off, and a collective of governors of territory under Hydran and Gorn occupation declared that they had sovereign rights to negotiate territorial agreements with foreign powers. This group of local rulers called themselves The Baduvai Consensus and stopped short of declaring independence. The Consensus granted the Gorn their treaty port. The Baduvai Imperium and the Baduvai Consensus would stop just short of war thanks to Federation diplomats salvaging the situation. Officially the Baduvai Consensus would be an autonomous region within the Baduvai Imperium. The Imperium would never forgive the Gorn, and the shenanigans the Gorn were up to the LMC would greatly diminish their diplomatic reputation back in the Alpha Octant as well.

Shortly after the Sakharov, the Culverin, and the Symbiosis would return to The Cloud in Y218 on their triumphant good will and contact mission the eastern regions of the LMC would burst into conflict. Emboldened by the success of the Baduvai in reclaiming their sovereignty early (and in fact, at all), the Eneen launched a diplomatic campaign aimed at securing a total withdrawal of all Klingon, Romulan, and Lyran forces from their territory. It went poorly. The Klingons withdrew to a set of borders that they now claimed were part of a Klingon Viceroyalty. The Romulans withdrew, but not before encouraging the Jumokians (supported by pirates that returned to the homeworld in preparation for the operation) to sieze as much territory as possible. The Lyrans used a similar trick as the Gorn and encouraged their local allies to declare themselves sovereign, and maintained full mining rights within the newly organised “Northern League.”

This is the new map of the LMC in Y218..

And this is where I leave everything. Operation Irminsul just connected Alpha to Omega through the LMC, and now the LMC is on the brink of a major war. Because of the new importance of the LMC to the Alpha powers, this war threatens to drag everyone in.

Chapter Four: So, Like, What Does It All Mean, Man?

This is a game about starship combat and I haven’t provided a single SSD of a starship.

So, what would this mean in game terms? What is the cash value of taking the LMC story in this direction?

The Romulans have three generations of pre-X ships in Alpha. First their puny indigenously designed Warbird style ships. Second, their converted Klingon Kestrels. Third, their Klingon-inspired, but 100% Romulan Hawks.

I’d give the Magellanics X-ships some time around Y210.

If this fiction is taken seriously it could be used to guide the invention of new ship classes for SFB. In this fiction everyone’s a Romulan. Take the Baduvai for example. The Imperium starts with C5 ships, gets Federation castoffs converted to their technology, and then develops X-ships that are Federation-inspired, but fully Baduvai in the Y210s. I’m thinking that they should take their fighter jet style cruisers and add a saucer to them. Or maybe something less on the nose, I don’t know. The Consensus gets the same but with Gorn patrons.

Everyone has a progression like that. The Eneen get Klingon ships, the Northern League (also Eneen) get Lyrans. The Maghadim are split between ISC and Hydran. The Jumokians get Romulan hulls.

But the “what are the ships going to look like?” question is mostly ancillary. It isn’t really necessary and can be clipped out.

Mostly, if the LMC direction I just laid out is taken seriously it does two things: explains the trade wars and sets the stage for a post-Xorkaelian conflict.

As for the trade wars, I like the vague idea of a low level violent conflict like this over critical resources between empires that are officially at peace. Even absent what I’ve written, a return to middle years style scenarios and atmosphere but with new ships is rather interesting in my opinion.

As for the post-Xorkalian aspect (this isn’t really a criticism, more of an observation), there are plenty of big bad invasion empires in the timeline. If SFB is going to have post-Xorkaelian wars, do we need more external invasions? The invaders aren’t interchangeable, and they’re all unique, but this fiction sets up another Great War conflagration without relying on an outside enemy to kick it off. The General War has the setting built around it. The ISC are an external big bad guy. The Andromedans are an external big bad guy. The Xorkaelians are an external big bad guy. The Cloud acting as a Balkans for another Great War (if that’s the direction it goes) isn’t an external big bad guy, but it could potentially draw in all three main settings if people wanted.

So, an obvious question is why did I write all this? And the answer is mostly that I’ve had the idea kicking around in my head for a while and I wanted to share it. I think it’s cool, but I’m under no illusions about the chances that it gets incorporated into the fiction. The LMC hasn’t even been fleshed out pre-Unity, let alone post-Unity, and committing to something this far down the product schedule just isn’t going to happen (especially since there isn’t even an X2, which will likely flesh things out that will invalidate parts of this). I think parts of it might work, or might inspire others, but mostly I just like the LMC as a setting, and needed to write this down and share it so that I could stop thinking about it.

By Norman Dizon (Ichaborn) on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - 06:52 am: Edit

Hi Shawn. Here are my opinions/thoughts. Please try not take offense to them. I know you put a lot of effort and thought into this. They are just a single person's feedback.

1) Really great, detailed work. Very well thought out from different perspectives. I like the historical summary and especially like how you showed every empire's goals, intentions, and actions.

2) "I’m proposing that whatever rare materials are required for X2, they are rare or expensive to extract in the Milky Way, yet abundant and relatively cheap to extract in the LMC."

This is the biggest issue, imo. I know it is the driving force behind what you wrote, but it is a hefty presumption that affects a great many things, particularly in the alpha sector. I wonder if TPTB would accept this statement alone.

3) "One X2 ship should be able to defeat a great number of non-X ships."

I have my doubts about this (from a Star Fleet Battles point of view, not a theoretical/hypothetical point of view). If you put a single X2 ship on a map (and used the SSD for it) and set it against 3 non-X ships, would it really win? Would the single X2 ship (and SSD) win against 6 non-X ships? Would the single X2 ship (and SSD) win against 12 non-X ships? I stress the SSD part because this is where the game playing must match the theoretical statements made. Can that single X2 ship really demolish an entire fleet of non-X adversaries? If it can, something is probably wrong with it in terms of rules and balance.

Perhaps, in your statement about a single X2 ship being able to defeat a great number of non-X ships, you mean that comparatively, on a ship by ship basis, a single X2 ship is greater than any other single non-X ship? That would make more sense to me.

4) IRC, TPTB stated that the Trade Wars may or may not be a part of X2. Still, I really like your justification for it. Officially, everyone is at peace, but there is a covert war for precious and valuable resources (which don't necessarily have to end up in the LMC). Makes sense and sets up a cool environment to participate in.

5) I agree that something like this (LMC/X2 Era) will probably never get published. Perhaps a couple of ships in Captain's Log down the line. Or maybe just a footnote about the LMC at the bottom of a long, detailed Alpha Sector Historical Piece...

6) How about this instead (in a joking, not mocking tone)? The LMC has ultra valuable X2 resources. Not wanting to have any random factors to worry about, the Alpha Powers completely eradicate the remnants of the LMC in one swift stroke, leaving the cloud and its resources completely to them. There...no more LMC.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - 09:17 am: Edit

I would wonder if perhaps some small "former subject race" petitioned to join one of the Galactic powers?

Also, I could see the Klingons taking some subject races along to colonize a fertile but unpopulated planet. With a Klingon overlord of course...

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - 01:23 pm: Edit

For the nothing it is actually worth, here are my thoughts on this:

1) The real idea driving this is "some resource that is very important to the Galactic powers is hard to get at home and easy to get in the LMC". That's all that is important.

The particulars on what the Unobtainium actually is and what they want to use it for (and magical X2 tech is as good as anything, really) is not actually that important. All that matters is that it is available in the LMC and it is worth the expense to go and get it.

This also means that the Trade Wars don't matter. If the Trade Wars still exist, fine, we're good. If they don't, the fact that everyone needs the Unobtainium and you can get it in the LMC is all that actually matters. Again, the specifics can always change as needed. It doesn't change what is going on and the action being set up.

2) This helps make the LMC more "accessible". Involving the well-known Galactic powers directly in the LMC like this adds in the well-known empires that people like to see, but still builds on and uses the LMC natives.

I like all of the purchased/sold ships and improving technology for the LMC. They can be as accentuated or downplayed as much as needed to make the product work, but still gives the nice open framework from which to allow an extremely wide range of options that all work in this framework. I also like that the LMC X-tech can adopt "lessons learned" from the Galactic tech and designs to make refined systems of their own.

In addition, it doesn't really matter if X2 ships are that much better than GW tech or not. All that matters is that X2 ships are worthwhile, they need Unobtainium, and the most cost effective way to get the Unobtainium is the LMC.

In summary: I like it. I hope something can be done with it as I think it'd be a pretty cool update of the LMC setting. I also like the nastiness from the Gorns and ISC.

P.S. Imgur won't let me view the images. Is there another place you can load them so I can see them?

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - 02:28 pm: Edit

I have to admit that, while I've searched through various in-print sources and BBS quotes on more than one occasion in order to assemble a proposal for consideration by ADB, it's still somewhat odd for me to see someone else quote from one of my articles in support of a submission of their own...

To this point, I've been wary of going much further on the topic of the "post-Unity" LMC beyond what was portrayed in the Sakharov article in CL51, despite it being a subject I'd very much hope to see explored in more detail in a would-be "Module C5R" at some future point in time. Especially since I would consider it impossible to do such a thing any sort of justice without ADB first getting Module X2 - and/or a subsequent Xorkaelian module - into print. Or perhaps not even then, depending on what kind of new background material might be held over for a would-be "Module X2R".

That said, there are a few data points which I should probably note for anyone wishing to present their vision of a post-Unity LMC. In no particular order, these are:

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While the on-screen Franchise refers to "Gorn" in both singular and plural, and the non-Trek source material for a certain animated episode has "Kzin" in singular and "Kzinti" in plural, the Star Fleet Universe incarnations of these species refers to "Gorn" and "Kzinti" in singular and to "Gorns" and "Kzintis" in plural.

While there have been more drastic differences between the original "Kzin/ti" and the SFU "Kzinti/s" biologically-speaking - the SFU Kzintis have cat ears rather than bat ears, to give one example - the Franchise is in the process of taking their "Gorn" in a very different direction to the SFU "Gorn/s" that should also be kept distinct from one another.

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So far as the post-Unity Tholians are concerned: their primary focus (beyond the continued security of the Holdfast proper) would be on their efforts to establish communications with the Tholians of Draco.

Given the major expense required to launch an expedition to reach the Tholiax colony in Y207, it remains to be seen if the Tholians would need to withdraw their entire Unity complement in order to focus on this task, or whether it would perhaps be "politically necessary" for them to maintain at least a nominal presence in the post-Unity LMC.

Although, I did use the tail end of the CL51 article to briefly speculate on whether or not the Tholians would be interested to learn of the existence of the silicate Trobrin Empire, in the wake of the Sakharov's return to the Alpha Octant in Y219...

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Speaking of which: while Operation Irminsul was launched in December Y218, the actual arrival of this task force to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud would be in Y219.

I should also note that, whereas the three Operation Unity routes each followed a line of Andromedan satellite bases from the Alpha Octant "down" to the LMC, Irminsul only accounts for a single former RTN route into the Omega Octant - a route which had been "cleared" by the Sakharov itself on the way "up" to Omega beforehand.

There are likely other RTN routes which the Andromedans had established between Omega and the LMC - to include some means by which they managed to reach the extra-galactic Iridani Cluster. (While the Iridani uncovered the secret behind the RTN in the course of the Grand Quest, they did not find a link over to the LMC directly. Perhaps, once the Andros conquered the Iridani New Kingdom along the Galactic Rim, they built a separate route and/or "spur" leading over to the Cluster instead?)

It is possible that, if one or more other RTN routes between Omega and the LMC exist, someone on either end might eventually "clear" it, or perhaps even consider establishing new roues of their own once word of Operation Irminsul begins to spread. I certainly like the idea of keeping the door ajar for other Omega empires with holdings along the Galactic Rim by the late Y210s - and/or a few "wildcard" factions, such as the Zosman Marauders - to start showing up in the LMC post-Irminsul.

Actually, if one were to assign specific "arrival points" on the LMC map for the Unity and Irminsul expeditions, one might need to be careful to leave enough room for any other routes leading to Omega - and then to see how each respective arrival point might impact the logistics behind the ongoing Alpha (and, from Y219 onward, Omega) presence in the LMC.

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There is the broader question in play: where else did the Andromedans go?

So far, we only know about the Andro conquest of the LMC, and their use of it to invade the Alpha and Omega Octants. No confirmed data has yet been extracted from the U.S. Air Force data tapes regarding which (if any) other Galactic octants the invaders might have attacked. Or, for that matter, which (if any) other satellite galaxies - with the exception of Draco, as noted above - the Andros might have captured in order to use as beach-heads against other parts of the Milky Way proper.

Personally, I would consider only a single Intergalactic Trunk Line route to the LMC - and just one active Desecrator starbase running as an ITL terminus at a given time - to be strained enough just to handle the theatres of conquest we already know about. Logistically-speaking, I would sooner prefer that any Andro attempts at the Sigma Octant, the Sargasso Storm Zone, and/or the Xorkaelian Tyranny - were they to have actually taken place - to have been launched from some other satellite galaxy, with its own ITL route running in parallel to the one we know (or at least speculate) about.

Coincidentally, both the Magellanic Stream and the Magellanic Bridge tenuously connect the LMC over to its larger sibling, the Greater Magellanic Cloud...

My point being that, if there are any RTN links from the LMC to places other than Alpha or Omega, and if (as suggested in the Sakharov article) there is a renewed effort from Y210 onwards to try and find them, whatever might be found would itself have an impact on the course of post-Unity LMC history, for good or ill.

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So far as the materials needed to make X-technology function: it's noted in the "monster" article in Captain's Log #52 that, in the Milky Way Galaxy at least, these happen to be the primary "feedstock" for the space whales which are better known in the Omega Octant as "wild" alunda. These creatures can be found in both the Alpha and Omega Octants, but there is no data placing them in the LMC.

As it happens, the largest known concentration of these "X-elements" in a single star system is in the Mirn home system; a quirk of galactic geography that enabled the Mirn to "domesticate" this species and turn them into Alunda Host ships. Which might be a reason why the Echarri Dynasty conquered the Alunda home world in Y218: either to use those "X-elements" themselves, or perhaps to deny them to rival empires using "Mæsron-type" X-technology of their own.

In any case, I'd be quite wary of the LMC having any more of these "X-elements" than is seen in Alpha or Omega. By which I mean that the average amount of these "X-elements" in a given star system should, in my view, be broadly comparable to the known levels elsewhere.

That said, the varying density of stars per map hex varies significantly from one portion of the LMC to another. While the "main" body of the LMC proper has stellar densities comparable to the Galactic norm, the Fringe hexes have much lower densities than this - while the Core region is much more densely packed. (There isn't enough data as of yet as to how dense the map hexes of the Chomak Cluster might be.)

So in terms of generating what Federation and Empire would refer to as "XTPs", I would prefer that the ratio of XTPs to "standard" EPs be the same as seen in the Alpha Octant, but that the number of EPs generated by each level of stellar density itself be the basis by which one might gauge the wealth of XTPs to be extracted from a given corner of the Cloud.

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Speaking of the Core: it's worth noting that while it's not quite as difficult to get into or out of than, say, the WYN Cluster, it still presents a formidable barrier for the post-Unity forces to deal with.

For one thing, any satellite bases the Andromedans might have installed on the inside would make it that much easier for holdout forces there to respond to incursions from the outside.

Consider that, over in the Omega Octant, no less than three large-scale attempts were made to dislodge the Andromedans from the Ryn Nebula: the first two failed utterly, and even the third (Operation Concerted Strike in Y204) led to the loss of almost nine-tenths of the assembled task forces involved. And that was against a "hollow" zone where the "wall" was less hazardous than the radiation zone surrounding the Core.

So the question of how the Maghadim, and/or any post-Unity task forces assigned to support them, are going to go about re-taking the Core is going to be difficult one to answer.

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It is also worth noting that, according to the Jindarian R-section data in Module X1R, the LMC Jindarians acquire advanced technology at some point after Operation Unity.

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There is a scenario set in Y205 in the LMC - (SL300) Backstabbed By A Thief, from Captain's Log #43 - involving the ISC, a group of Jumokian pirates, and a few Andromedan holdouts. It should be noted that the ISC did not show any ulterior motive in this engagement; rather, it was the Jumokian ships present (which were of course dismissed as "rogue actors" by the Jumokian envoys afterwards) who had opportunistic intentions of their own.

Which is not to say that all of the ISC's post-Unity interactions would be like this. But I would personally prefer they hold more closely to the kind of political position in the LMC that the Federation would take.

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And finally (for now): whatever kind of conflicts were to break out in the LMC post-Unity, I'd be quite wary of borrowing any terms used for real-world flashpoints in the Middle East.

I'm already wishing in retrospect that the term used for what the Omega-Paravians plan to unleash in the Eighth Cycle of Omega history had been something else (say, the "Conflagration"); I wouldn't be in a hurry to see the list of such "loaded" terms added to in the SFU.

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - 04:22 pm: Edit

I’m really happy with the response this has gotten.

Mike West:
Try this:

Occupation zones.
Post-occupation.

Gary:
I always enjoy reading these writeups you make. Someone once accused Dan Carlin (jokingly) of being addicted to context, and I think that applies to one or both of us. Truly, I mean it. These posts take a lot of time and effort and help situate the discussion in the proper context. Thank you.

A question about Irminsul/the RTN: Do the nodes have to connect to the rim of the galaxy, or can they be through the Z-axis?

I know you’re not necessarily supporting the idea, but I like the notion that some critical resource could be space monster food. If Alunda food was critical for a weapon, and some satellite galaxy were to have no Alundas, then that would explain the difference in resource distribution.

In my treatment, I more or less treated it as a given that the core would be retaken quickly (after all, if two GSXs could knock out the fortress perimeter, how tough would it really be to take the core?). How tough do you think it would be for the Galactics to crack the core of the LMC to get at the juicy Andro center inside? Do you think it would be closer to a 1 year mission or a 10 year mission?

I’m also not sure what you mean with your reference to SL300.0 specifically, where do you see a contradiction? The ISC state having a secret plan at the conference table to enlighten a warlike species doesn’t seem to me to contradict the ISC working with (and being stabbed in the back by) Jumokians. Certainly a secret government plan wouldn’t be known to every admiral in the fleet, in the same way that a government’s state department or political leadership might have a vision that isn’t shared with the commanders on the ground. In fact, I would say that is most often the case.

When it comes to the use of “loaded” terms, I’m much more casual about it than you I think. Jihad (which you made oblique reference to) as in the provisional name of the Omegan Paravian state, “The Paravian Jihad” simply means struggle in Arabic, but in context it’s closer to “holy war” or “crusade.” Intifada as I’ve used it here means “shaking off” in Arabic, as in the shaking off of occupiers. To me these are colourful, evocative words that give character to the setting. If they’re too spicy it’s pretty simple to change them to their English equivalents.

Conflagration though means something interesting. It is the joining of many fires into one. It doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that a state would call itself, but maybe? It would give fertile soil for someone to write from the Paravian perspective. The Paravians had a unity problem from what I recall. Could the Omega Paravians see the individual raiding groups as metaphorical flames being joined together into a single conflagration to destroy their enemies? Seems neat.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - 06:30 pm: Edit

When the ring of satellite bases surrounding the Core was first established by the Andromedans, the goal was to enable them to use the RTN to respond quickly to any "breakout" attempts by the Triple Pact - such as the task forces which had tried (and failed) to destroy the second Desecrator. Over time, the Andros began upgrading these bases; by the time the Sakharov and Fermi were holding their "race" around the Core during Operation Phoenix, they had to call in help from supporting units in order to deal with some of them.

But even with this ring of RTN nodes in place, it was a very different matter for the Andromedans to "crack" the Core itself. The actual rules required to play out an SFB scenario involving an Andro crossing of a radiation shell have yet to be written up. Yet while the ability of the Triple Pact forces to respond to an incursion would be lessened relative to the more compact area of "open" space on the inside of the WYN Cluster, it would take two Dominators packed with a new (yet-to-be-detailed) type of energy module to provide the critical mass of combat power needed to hold off the defenders long enough to establish an RTN link.

While we don't yet know exactly how to handle Andro crossings of the shell, we do know how it would affect Alpha and LMC warships attempting the crossing. And yet, while it appears that an RTN link can be set up (with special preparations) from one side of the shell to another, we don't (yet) know if non-Andro forces can use a mobile base established on the inside of the shell as a strategic movement node for forces waiting on the outside. Further, given how much faster the Andros can muster a response using the RTN, it might be necessary to make multiple incursions at once, so as to spread the Andro holdout forces thinly enough to make a successful beach-head possible.

In terms of actual numbers, I'd wait to see what the long-awaited Andro War module for Federation and Empire has to say before speculating on how many Andromedan remnants might lurk within the Cloud post-Unity - even if an actual LMC module for F&E might be a long shot at best.

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So far as "unity of command" issues are concerned, you might be thinking of the Carnivons.

But, in my view, there would (or should) be a difference between the name of the Omega-Paravian empire in and of itself, and the title of the Big Event they are set to unleash in the Eighth Cycle.

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Part of the issue regarding the placement of RTN routes appears to be the Galactic Energy Barrier. It might be that the number (and placement) of routes into a given Galactic octant is in part due to how many (relatively) safe crossing points the Andromedans can find.

Indeed, it might be that not every "safe" crossing point is so for every empire seeking to make a crossing. Perhaps, say, a certain crossing point suitable for the Iridani is unusable for the Andromedans, or vice versa?

Actually, I wonder if the Andromeda Galaxy itself might have a similarly strong Barrier. (It's known that M81 has a Barrier of its own, albeit a relatively weak one.) If so, perhaps the ITL route leading to the LMC started not in M31 proper, but in one of that galaxy's satellites? That might explain why no ITL trace was uncovered within a year's travel of the LMC: the investigating ships were travelling in the wrong directions.

It would be welcome to see more published data on how Galactic Barriers work in the SFU, in order to better inform discussions such as this one.

By Michaelhig on Thursday, April 10, 2025 - 11:59 am: Edit